Video: Whitewater Kayaking the Final Chelan Gorge Release in 2011

Dan Patrinellis put together this really nice video of the last Chelan Gorge release this summer – sadly, it looks like that was the last release for years to come. Word on the eddyline is that the water was warm and, as you can see, it was a gorgeous weekend.

Rob McKibbin did a first descent of Pinnacle rapid on that run, according to JP’s post on Professor Paddle it was a lot harder than it looks in the video. I talked with Rob the other day and he said it was not as hard as running Landslide rapid on Robe Canyon at 5’9″, which he did last week for the second time – Landslide being a much longer rapid that for most mortal beings is a portage, especially at that level.

I don’t know everyone in this video but definitely saw Fish, Ellie Wheat, Dave Moroles, Rob McKibbin, and it looked like Joe Howard. I give Ellie thumbs up for doing this in a small Burn, it’s what I have and we’ve both been checking out creekboat volumes recently – the small is only 63 gallons, that’s 11 gallons less than the medium Burn and it makes a big difference when you’re running beefy drops.